The Department of Health has been notified of a further 21,926 cases of Covid-19.
The number of people hospitalised with the virus stood at 936 as of this morning, a decrease of five on the same time yesterday.
Of those in hospital, 84 are being treated in ICU, which is down six on yesterday.
The figures come as the Chief Executive of the HSE has said the latest wave of infection is having a "very significant impact" on staffing.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne programme, Paul Reid said there has been an increase of about 140% in hospitalisations over a 14-day period, and almost 60% in a week.
The staffing impact has been what "has hurt most this time" compared to January last year, Mr Reid said.
"In particular where we're seeing a high level of impact is in our frontline staff," he said.
"Of the numbers we are reporting [that are] out, about 35% of those are nursing and midwives, and a further 35% are people directly involved in patient and client care, health and social care professionals in our community ... and indeed our National Ambulance Service," Mr Reid said.
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He added that "a number of tough decisions", particularly around elective care and visitor restrictions have had to be taken and with the level of transmission related to Omicron, it is "really impossible to put a ring of steel" around hospital services.
A consultant medical oncologist at Cork University Hospital, has said that the situation with staff shortages across the health system is only going to get worse.
Speaking to RTÉ's Drivetime, Professor Seamus O'Reilly, said: "We still haven't peaked and that's a problem.
"All these peaks happen quickly and then the tail is a much more slow process. The disruption that we are seeing now, that's really being magnified of course by the holiday time over the Christmas period, is going to dominate over the next few weeks as well unfortunately".
Prof Reilly said that there is "limited bandwidth within the system" to ask staff to work longer hours.
Staff have juggled the demands of home and work life in a pandemic for 20 months, he added.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, Tadhg Daly, said that up to 3,000 workers in the sector are absent this week due to Covid.
He told RTÉ's Drivetime that it is "causing huge, huge stress" to the remaining staff who are taking on extra work as a result of shortages.
Mr Daly said that nursing homes and older people "bore the brunt" of the pandemic in the early stage.
"The staff are under intense pressure at this point in time, but the commitment, the resilience and the compassion they're showing is exemplary," he added.
Nursing homes are supplying their own antigen tests at present, but there is ongoing engagement with the Government on the shortage of antigen tests with a view to securing a supply for nursing homes.
HSE CEO Paul Reid said that as of this morning, it had distributed over one million antigen tests, adding that about 150,000 were delivered in the last four days to symptomatic people aged 4-39.
The HSE has a "committed supply line" that will see it through January into February, amid talks with other suppliers about additional supply.
On maternity restrictions, Mr Reid said they have managed to sustain the commitments made so far in terms of partner visits, but asked that people "bear with us" if changes do have to be made.
Earlier, HSE Chief Operations Officer Anne O'Connor said they expect the next week to be challenging, but will continue to do what it can in terms of delivering services amid the current wave of Covid-19 cases.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she said the HSE is not doing a "blanket shutting up" of services but has advised hospital sites to pull back where they need to.
Ms O'Connor said there will be some "inability" to do some scheduled work and some people will be left waiting as a result.
"There are certain things we have to do. We can't just shut up, we have to respond to emergencies and people who are very sick people, and people with time dependent care needs, people with cancer surgeries, cardiac procedures etc.," she said.
Ms O'Connor also said there are currently 300 outbreaks in residential care facilities.
Meanwhile, the Irish Prison Service has announced that all physical family visits will be temporarily suspended from Monday for two weeks.
All visits scheduled from between Monday 10 January and Monday 24 January are now cancelled.
Video visits can continue to operate as normal however, with prisoners entitled to one video visit per week.
Pharmacies under 'significant pressure' due to absences
The high number of Covid-19 cases is placing pharmacies under significant pressure, according to the Irish Pharmacy Union.
It said this has lead to some pharmacies having to reduce opening hours or close for certain days.
The IPU has asked people to "plan ahead" and order medicines such as repeat prescriptions well in advance.
"These staff shortages come at a time when the demands on pharmacies have increased significantly," IPU Secretary General Darragh O'Loughlin has said.
In Northern Ireland, a further 6,444 positive cases of Covid-19 have been notified by the Department of Health.
No further deaths of patients who previously tested positive for the virus were recorded in today's update.
